A grand jury in Staten Island voted Wednesday not to indict New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died after Pantaleo placed him in a chokehold.
Garner, 43, died July 17 as he was being arrested for selling untaxed cigarettes. In a video of the arrest, which has since gone viral, Garner screams “I can’t breathe!” multiple times until his body goes limp. A medical examiner later said that he died of a chokehold, a move that is banned by the NYPD, and ruled his death a homicide.
(Huffington Post, December 3, 2014)
It is noteworthy, of course, that the fatal encounter in this case was caught on tape. After all, I’ve been in the vanguard of those propounding that such encounters would be less confrontational if we require police officers to wear body cameras.
Alas, like beauty, whether Officer Pantaleo committed a crime is in the eye of the beholder. I’ve seen the video … many times, and what I see every time is a big Black man refusing (verbally and physically) to obey lawful commands to turnaround to be handcuffed.
It might be helpful to know that the police had probable cause to suspect that he was committing one of the many petty crimes that come under NYC’s broken-windows theory of community policing. In this case, Garner was allegedly selling cigarettes without proper authorization.
But he resisted with such determination that it took four cops to subdue him, and with such indignation that you’d think he was exercising some unwritten constitutional right (or racial entitlement) to resist arrest….
No doubt it’s tragic that, in attempting to subdue Garner, Pantaleo choked him to death. But I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that this was not his intent. Which is why, instead of criminal prosecution, I think he should face disciplinary action for using a chokehold that the NYPD has banned “in most circumstances.”
Mind you, Pantaleo probably thought he was using less deadly force by attempting to physically subdue Garner, instead of shooting him with a Taser gun. Just imagine the public outcry, however, if he did, and Garner died from the shock….
But all police officers, paramedics, and EMTs on the scene should face disciplinary action for failing to render immediate assistance when it became clear Garner was suffering acute respiratory distress.
In any event, I am also convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that, had Garner obeyed (as all law-abiding residents should), Pantaleo would’ve had no cause to lay a hand on him.
Therefore, let me be clear: the grand jury in Ferguson was wrong not to indict Officer Wilson; the grand jury in New York City was right not to indict Officer Pantaleo.
But, given all I’ve already written on similar facts and circumstances in the Ferguson case, I shall end by reiterating that the best way to save Black lives in these situations is to:
… admonish[] young Black men against the deadly hazards of resisting arrest and defying authority … merely as a misguided badge of honor or rite of passage.
(“Why Chastise the Times for Describing Michael Brown as ‘No Angel’”?! The iPINIONS Journal, August 26, 2014)
It’s really that simple. This is why all of the hackneyed claptrap about a national conversation on race makes me want to puke.
Meanwhile, I fear that, just as a multiracial band of professional anarchists and petty thieves used the Ferguson decision as an excuse to foment lawlessness and loot businesses, they will use this New York decision to do the same. I just hope the NYPD are more prepared to stop them than the FPD were (especially as protests are beginning to unfold in Times Square as I write)….
Related commentaries:
Ferguson … Wilson walks…
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Wednesday, at 5:24 p.m.
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